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THE 



RELATIONS OF SLAVERY TO THE WAR; 



AND 



f 00iti0E 0f m 



AT THE PRESENT TIME. 




THREE DISCOURSES, 

PPwEACHED AT W^yj^RTOWN, N. Y., 

By Eev. IJ. W. KEYNOLDS. 



V 



WATERTOWN, N. Y. : 

SOLD AT TUE BOOKSTORES AND AT RAND's, 

1861. 






For Civil War, tlia'. it is an evil I diSiiute not. But that it is Jba gi-eiiest of evils, that 
I stoutly deny. It doth indeed appear to the mi?judging to be a worse calamity than 
bad government, because its miseries are collected witMu a short space and time, and 

may easilv, at one view, be talten in and perceived When the devil of 

Tyranny hath gone into the body politic, he departs not but with struggles, and foaming, 
ap.d great convulsions. Shall he, therefore, ve:^ U forever, lest, in going out, he for a 
moment tear and rend it?— Miltos. 

It is impossible for a nation, even while struggling for itself, not to acquire some- 
thing for all mankind. — Motley. 

Whatever is just, is always true law; nor can true law either be originated or abro- 
gated by any written enactments. — Cicero. 

Tyranny is against the law of nature. — Aristotle. 

Slavery is introduced through human wickedness ; but God advocates Liberty by the 
nature he has given to man. — Blackstoxe. 



WHAT IT MEANS. 



A brief word, by way of explanation, will account for the appear- 
ance of this i'aniphlet. 

The first Discourse having been delivered, a-reeably to previou.s 
notice, it appeared that a few persons were displeased— the disatfected 
b/in-'of two classes: 1st. Those who disliked the topic too much 
to allosv tlicm to hear the sermon, and who —asstiming that the 
r.iKATMENT would be objectional3ie,— were willing to derive their 
impressions from report, merely. 2d. Those who attended that 
service expecting to dislike the address, and who heard without 
apprehending— as appears from their subsequent statements. 

My best defence, against misapprehension and misconstruction, 
appears to be to lay the Discourse before those who may feel any 
interest in the subject, in the form in which it was actually delivered. 

The other Discourses have grown out of the first; and are included 
in the publication because they were designed to illustrate and fo;tily 
the more radical sentiments originally expressed. 

The Sermons will be found not so much echoes of public opinion, 
a^infimations of a sentiment destined to assert itself triumphantly, 
if [ mistake not, in a few months, in American politics. If the 
pamphlet should happen to be read by those not yet prepared to 
accept its teachings, let ma request them to suspend their final 
decision until the events now pending sludl have spent their force on 
the public mind. 

I have heard it objected, that any agitation of the Slavery question, 
in the present crisis, is injudicious, because tending to revive party 
divisions and divert attention from the business immediately before 



IV 

us. In relation to the objection, I regard the people of the Free 
States as already decisively committed to the War ; the Government 
will be sustained, and the Union will be preserved ; and the thing 
we shall soon be obliged to decide, is. What to do with the Arch 
Criminal that has made all the mischief? I agree with gentlemen 
who say that when the house has been set on fire, the first necessity 
is, to smother the conflagration ; but I beg to remind them, that the 
next dictate of reason and self-preservation, is, to set the police on 
the INCENDIARY,, in order that we may never incur the like calauiity 

in future. 

E. W. REYNOLDS. 

May 21', 18G1. 



I. 

SLAVERY, 

RETEOSPECTIVE, ACTUAL, AND rROSPECTIVE. 



Remember Ihe clays cf ol'.l.— Peut. xxxii, 



There is ahvays profit in recurring- to the Past, if the retro- 
spect be intelligent, and the view comprehensive. In that case, 
tiie wise man will find, in the . surviving memorials of human 
history and experience, much pertinent instruction, — much to 
admonish, to encourage, and to guide. For humanity, in its 
various phases, and in its widest extremes, is impressed upon 
"the days of old." In its records, the rival principles that 
have always divided the world, and that still enlist the interest 
and power of mankind, have left the traces of their essence, 
their influence, and their results. 

"What can be more impressive or instructive, than to reani- 
mate past ages, and to see the passions which Ave have espoused, 
or the passions against which we are marshalled in conflict^ — 
displayed in their true nature, and ripening their legitimate 
fruit ? Eor History repeats itself, from age to age, from land 
to land,— like the splendid sunsets that embellish the West, 
and hke the tornadoes that darken the tropic seas. A few 
great principles, beneficent and divine — and a few great pas- 
Fions, pernicious and human— have furnished the materials of 
all the conflicts in which the nations have participated, and 
which it is the business of universal history to describe. Dip 
into what annals we will,— grope back to an antiquity however 



6 TirE TtELATTONS Of ^LAVEHV TO TilK WAT. 

remote, — revive the concerns of a people however obscure or 
strange, — and we come, at once, upon these familiar elements of 
our nature, that are playing in our latest politics, nnd coloring 
1he character of every living man,— tliese indestructible ele- 
ments, which Divine Providence is weaving into a succession 
of dramas, for the vindication of Justice and Truth, for the 
discipline and perfection of the world. 

if it be instructive to recur to "the d.TS'S of old,"' in times 
of social tranquility, how much more so must be the retrospect, 
when Hociety is agitated and confused, — when the Government 
is asflailed by Anarchy — v;hcn delirious pasaions echpse the 
pcrenity of reason — when the present scene is too much dark- 
ened by the smoke of the combat to admit of distinct impres- 
sions; and when we are thrown back upon the Past for soud 
footing, and for a serene, unbiased wisdom. There are fiicts 
find experiments, impressed upon the olden days, well qualified 
to enlighten us in our duty, and to admonish us of our dangers, 
ill the critical times upon which we are cast. I shall endeavor, 
on this occasion, to bring to light such facts, or such e:xperi- 
cik-es, out of the Past, as seem qualified to subserve the 
I)urposes of an enlightened patriotism, in the present crisis of 
affairs. 

In re-reading Macaulay's History, recently, I was struck by 
the fact, that the great social Evil, which, in this country, has 
been the occasion of so much discord and the spring of such 
imminent danger — was abolished, in the English nation, not 
only without violence, but without notoriety. In the Thirteenth 
Century-, Slavery was universal in England; but, by the Fif- 
teenth or Sixteenth Centuries, it had entirely disappeared from 
the realm. Yet, this great social revolution seems to have 
.gone silently forward, involving no great controversies, and 
attracting no special attention from cotcmporary observers. 
It became the object of no legislative enactments, and it pro- 
voked no physical force ; but it faded out of the civ^lizatiou of 
England under the intensifying power of moral causes, and no 
man can tell, precisely, at what period it ceased to stain the 
web of Society. 



TlIK RELATIONS OV SLAVERY TO THE VTXR. / 

If WO inquire for the causes that produced that ffreat change, 
in so peaceful a innauer, and by such imperceptible degrees, 
we shall find that the main cause was the feeling of the Churcil, 
touching the institution of Slavery. The Christian Church, 
from the beginning, in all countries, had been hostile to the 
practice of slave-holding. It had uniformly made its power 
felt, in mitigating or restricting the Evil, as fast as it became 
strong enough to make its authority respected. The idea of 
possessing pr. >purt7 in Man was repugnant, from the first, to 
the faudamental .1: aths of the Gospel; and there is hardly an 
Uiubtrious nuruo on the roll of the Church, that is not asso- 
ciated with some protest against Slavery, or with some effort 
for its abolition. Since this was the common sentiment that 
swayed the Christian teachers, it followed, naturally enough, 
that soon as the Church obtained ascendency over a tribe, or 
nation, it should bring its power to bear, persistently and 
inflexibly, upon the unjust distinction of Master and Slave. 

This was really the case ; and another thing to be noted, is, 
that the Church, in the Middle Ages,— not only in England, 
but in all the countries of Europe,— had all but absolute 
poioer to execute her purposes. Those who professed Chris- 
tianity, believed implicitly that the Church held the keys^ of 
Heaven and Earth, and could admit the dying to endless bliss, 
or banish them to endless pain. In that rude age, when the 
Norman lords were above the restraints of Civil Law, and 
their vassals below its protection— the only hope of the weak, 
was in the power of the Church, which could bless or damn 
the soul of the haughtiest baron. Generously and nobly, m 
most instances, did the priests use that ten'ible engine of Super- 
stition. When the gi'eat Norman chiefs lay in the agonies of 
death, the blessing of the Church was of more value than all 
the crowns of the world ; and when that blessing was made 
dependent on the instant liberation of those bondmen for whom 
Christ died, the parting sinner was not likely to hesitate where 
duty and interest so palpably met. So faithfully did the 
Christian teachers employ their tremendous ecclesiastical influ- 



O THE RELATIONS OF SLAVEUY TO TUE WAR. 

ence, for the benefit of Societ}', that Slavery became utterl}' 
exterminated in England, and the servile class elevated into 
manhood, before the advent of the Koformation. Ar.d so 
unquestionable was the agency of the Ancient Church in 
achieving the salutary revolution, that Sir Thomas Smith — one 
of the ablest Protestants in the court of Elizabeth — bears the 
strongest testimony to the fact. 

Although NEGRO SLAVERY, a ccntury or so later, prevailed to 
Bome extent in England, it never received the general sanction 
of the Courts; and, in the celebrated decision of Lord Mans- 
field, made in 1772, it was shown that no slave could be 
retained, against his will, by the law of the realm. Slavery 
was a condition so " odious," in the language of Lord Mans- 
field's decision, that nothing could be suffered to support it 
but positive law; and that support it never had from the law 
of England, either in Britain or in the Colonies. 

In America, when the Church was brought face to face with 
Slavery, at the organization of our Government, the combat 
was to be waged under different circumstances. Society had 
undergone great changes, since the Middle Ages ; and some 
of the changes were adverse, and others were favorable, to a 
successfal contest with Slavery. The Keu:>rmation had broken 
that iron machinery of the Church, which had been so service- 
able iu former times; and it was our weaker Protestantism 
that had to grapple with the American slave-holder. Keligion 
had ceased to be that stern and palpable "terror to evil-doers," 
which it had been when the Priest was supposed to hold the 
keys of Heaven; and it could not, therefore, exert as vigorous 
H restraint. On the other hand, the progress of Society had 
widened and confirmed all those sentiments of humanity, which 
are hostile to Slavery. The Institution had become, from gene- 
ration to generation, more aud more odious. The tendeuLy of 
all History, from the opening of the Reformation ojiward, was 
to render every form of tyranny unpopular, — to unsetlle tin; 
old wrongs, — to inspire sympathy for those struggling for their 
rights; and to create lively anticipations of the rapid spread 
of Liberty over the world. 



THE RELATIONS OF SLAVERY TO THE WAR. 9 

Such were the ch'cuinstanccs under wiiicli tlie American 
Churcli, eighty years ago, was .suumioned to encounter that 
great anomaly of our repubhc — American Shivery. I say 
that the Cuurcu was sunuuonetl to encounter this Evil, — not 
forgetting, however, that the State Governments, and the 
Federal Convention, were also agitating the subject ; and that 
Slavery provoked, from the first, the resolute opposition of 
most of our revolutionary statesmen. But, from the nature of 
the subject. Slavery had always been regarded us pre-eminently 
a moral subject, — as something over whicli Kelicuon liad pecu- 
liar jurisdiction; and as a wrong on the natuue of man, so 
patent and notorious, that the Christian teachers must, as a 
matter of course, strive unremittingly to have it done away. 

Nor did the conflict, at first, threaten to be very severe. 
The predominant sentiment of the nation was an anti-Slavery 
sentiment, and it found a calm and strong utterance from 
Virginia to Massachusetts. Only in the Carolinas and in Geor- 
gia, were there indications of a settled devotion to Slavery, or 
a determination evinced to pcn-petuate it, at all hazards. The 
great body of intluential men, in other states, esteemed Slavery 
as a blot upon the nation; and their sympathies and convic'tions 
were lieartily opposed to its perpetuity. Sucli being the state 
of public opinion, it seemed every way proljable that such 
influences would emanate from our Government, and especially 
from om- Churches, as to involve, at no distant day, the peaceful 
removal of the one great Evil that impe<led our social pro- 
gress. Unexpected developments disappointed this reasonable 
expectation. The manufacture of Cotton rendered slave-labor 
profitable in the Gulf-States, uiid opened a lucrative commerce 
in slaves, for the states of tlio Interior. At the same time, the 
acquisition of new Slave Territory, gave a broader base to 
the Institntion, on wliich to resist the humane, freedom-loving 
public opinion of C!histen<loni. 

Tben came the trial of tlie vigcn- of the American C'hurcli. 

"When the tide of Improvcnient began to set l)ackward, then 

was the time for the Cliurch to have thrown all its power 

against the ebbing waters. When a great Temptation came 

2 



10 THE RELATIONS OF 8LAYBRY TO THE WAR. 

to stimulate the lust of the nation, — when temporal (rain wum 
set before the Eternal Right, so that the contact of wealth and 
luxury might dazzle the eye and seduce the conscience, — then 
was the time for the Church to revive the image of Liberty, of 
God, and of responsibility. When Slavery began to reveal 
its despotic purpose, — when, not content with the subjugation 
of the black man, it assumed to domineer over the white, — 
when it proceeded to crack its plantation whip over Congress, 
to bully timid statesmen, and to gnash its teeth against the 
bold champions of Freedom, — then was the time for every 
pulpit to blaze with the lightnings of Divine Truth, and for 
every Christmn man to invoke the Almighty Name, till the 
nation should be awake to its peril, and the moral apostacy of 
the land rebuked. 

The American Church was not equal to the emergency. It 
bent before the roaring beast it ought to have taken by the 
horns ; and it apologized for the system which even a Deist 
had pronounced "the sum of all villanies." That sacred 
Institution which Jesus Christ had founded among men, as 
a refuge for the weak, — as the hope of the merciful, — as the 
means of breaking every yoke, and setting every captive free, — 
even that humbled itself before the arrogance of Slavery, and 
held its peace ; while Liberty fell in the streets, and Honor 
veiled her face. It was the saddest, most shameful, most 
perilous day of our history, when the Christianity of this land 
was bribed and badgered into submission to Slavery. No — 
there was a sadder, more shameful, more perilous day even 
than that: the day that the most venerable bodies of the 
Church conspired to pronounce Slavery divine, and to stigma- 
tize as Infidels, the faithful men who suffered for freedom ! 

I suppose it is now clear, to the minds of American freemen, 
that the Church committed a great error, if not a great crime, 
in having made any terms %vith Slavery. If the pulpit and the 
religious press had refused to compromise with slave-holding, — 
if the Churches had excluded slave-holders from the commu- 
nion, — if every minister, ordained to the eervice of Christ, had 
labored to array this wrong before men under the odium of 



THE RELATIONS OF etATERY TO THE WAR. 11 

Divine condemnation, — it could not have been perpetuated to 
this day. The voice of Religion would have 80 ratified the 
moral convictiouB of our people, and lent such authority and 
vigor to the best feelings of our nat\ire, that Slavery would 
have been extinguished, peaceably and imperceptibly, by a 
process similar to that which eradicated it from England, 
With vigorous moral causes working for its removal, the 
fcubject would have entered less into our politics, — it would 
have had little or no opportunity to vitiate the Government, — ■ 
the rancorous hostility between the North and vSouth would 
have been averted, and Treason would never have dragged 
our flag to the dust. 

The moment the Church consented to ignore, or tolerate, the 
enormous sin, Slavery began to be dominant in our politics, 
and the Government began to be prostituted to its purposes. 
In private circles, it became fashionable to apologize for Slavery, 
and to deny or extenuate the abuses which the system involves. 
In public life, the path of ambition became the path of subser- 
viency and compromise. This despotism came to possess the 
offices and the honors of the Republic, and it dispensed them 
to those who could abase tliemselves most, as the tools of its 
wicked policy. 

While the masses of our people were thus yielding to the 
disastrous retrogression of public opinion, a small band of 
earnest men, whom the popular sophistry had not infected, 
rallied to the standard of Liberty. Through calumny, perse- 
cution and violence, they kept their ground, and made their 
voices heard through the land. They have never been a very 
lovable set of men ; for in Politics they have been as stern as 
the sternest Puritan — and in Religion, lax as the most specula- 
tive Rationalist. They have dealt in the severest language ; 
they have advocated the extremest measures ; they have courted 
the hatred of Church and State. But, they have been, as a 
party, a sort of providential break-water against an overflow- 
ing political apostacy ; and, when the history of the last thirty 
years shall be honestly written, the Garrisouian party will 
occupy, perhaps, as honorable a place in our annals, as the 
Puritans already occupy in the annals of the Stuarts. 



12 



THE RELATIONS OF .«LAVERY TO THE WAR. 



Meantime, the development of the .skive-holdin- despotism 
has borne siieh fniit as no man foresaw who consented to 
tolerate its n-,..wth. The ef^bcts of the system have been so 
palpably retributive, as to evince a Divine agency working out 
its destruction, if not the destruction of those leagued with it 
We are too much in the habit of estimating the evils „f 
Slavery, with reference to the Negro race. Its direct and 
obvious effects upon the slaves themselves, are, doubtless, 
revoltmg enough, in many instances; but the most terrilic 
effects of the system appear, not in its results to tlie negro, 
but m its results to flu- white- man. .Slavery may not be an 
obvious injury to every individual slave; but I maintain that 
It IS an obvious injuiy to every individual master,— to every 
free family,— to every State, and to tl,c very life of the 
Republic. Forty years ago, actuated by conmiercial selfish- 
ness, and by our antipathies to the African race, we supposed 
that the perpetuity of Slavery wovdd damage nobody but the 
helpless negro. But, behold how God has punished our 
cruelty, and confounded our expectations ! The African race, 
m America, has passed through a baptism of fire; but it has 
multiplied, as the Israelites did under the oppressions of Egypt. 
It has become a more civilized and mighty race ; drawing from 
its task-masters more mental vigor, and greater relish for free- 
dom, from year to year, till it has become a terror in tlie land, 
no longer to be trusted, hardly to be restrained. 

While God has thus been strengthening the servile race, He 
has been weakening their oppressors. While the negro has 
been rising toward Civilization, the white man of the South 
has been sinking into Barbarism. Ignorance and Superstition 
Cruelty and Vice, Violence and Anarchy, reign paramount in 
the slave-holding States. There never was seen such a sudden 
and wholesale relapse of great communities into hopeless bar- 
l)arism. The records of the social life of those States has 
been, for some years, like pages gathered from the annals of 
the Tenth Century. Such violent despotism over private judg- 
ment,— such sanguinary sway of lyncli law,— such subjugation 
of cities to brutal mobs, and of States to revolutionary anar- 



TUE RELATIONS OF SLAVERY TO THE WAR. lo 

chy, — 8uch swaggerinn- preten.'sions to honor and chivalry, 
united with crimes that only the hangman can [)roperly pun- 
ish, — such spectacles which make up the every day life of the 
South, almost jiersuade a man that he is reading a chronicle of 
the Middle Ages, and uot an American newspaper, reporting 
contemporano( )us eveuts. 

As little did we foresee the ett'cct of Slavery on the safety 
and integrity of the American Government. "When it clamored 
for protection, we never thought it would aspire to rule. When 
it aspired to rule, we never thought it would conspire to ruin 
the Repul)lic if it were voted out of ] tower. ]Jut, such is the 
nature of the system, that it makes everything it touches sub- 
servienl ; and, soon as it comes to be resisted, breaks every 
treaty, defies every consequence, and malignantly stabs the 
nation tiiat has warmed it into power. Itself based upon 
injustice, I'apine and cruelty, it is not conciliated l)y fair i»lay, 
or restrained 1)y considerations of social well-being, or affected 
by the prospect of boundless carnage. It is a creature of 
lust, aggression and violence; and its legitimate influence is 
always fatal, just in proportion to its power and opportunity. 

With the nature and tendencies of Slavery so clearly dis- 
closed, as they now are, in the state of Southern society and 
in this most wicked Rebellion, if there is an American freeman 
who can apologize for it any longer, it must be a case of 
infatuation utterly without parallel. And if this bloody quarrel, 
which Slavery has ruthlessly provoked, is ever settled without 
rooting the deadly curse out of the land, we shall bequeath a 
new quarrel to our children, and untold calamities to mankind. 
We were willing to tolerate Slavery, from a sense of constitu- 
tional obligation; and wo would even violate conscience to 
keep the faith our fathers were believed to have bound us by. 
But, since Slavery was not content with being tolerated, but 
insisted on being our dictator ; since she will be our autocrat 
or our destroyer ; and since she has taken down the sword and 
summoned us to mortal combat — away with all forbearance, 
and all compromise, and let the wicked harlot die. She has 
released us from the old compact, whatever that may have 



14 THE RELATION? OF SLAVKRY TO THE WAR. 

involved ; and God be thanked for the madness of despotism 
tliat has broken the dangerous bond. She has exasperated 
every freeman, by forty years of insolence,— by forty years of 
broken faith and culminating crimes; and now by the just 
God in Heaven, and by the holy instincts of Freedom, she 
shall perish by the sword she has compelled us to draw ! 

We have endured everything from Slavery that human 
nature can endure, beause our temper is forbearing, our man- 
ners pacific, and our pursuits compatible only with peace. We 
have consented to be a reproach to civilized nations, because 
of our complicity in this great wrong. We have consented to 
bear more than our just proportion of the burdens of Govern- 
ment, and have received less than our just share of its emolu- 
ments. We have submitted to have our citizens mobbed, 
imprisoned, and hung, for no crime but that of being born in 
a Free State, and loving their natural birthright. We have 
endured insults and aggressions, fraud and violence, in the 
halls of Congress, and in our own free cities. We have given 
up the weak to the fangs of the slave-hunter, and seen the 
mark of the beast set upon the forehead of our most illustrious 
men. All this has not been enough. Slavery has demanded 
more ; and, when we refused to grant more, she seized her 
wicked bludgeon, and tried to demoHsh the fabric of that fair 
Union which had sheltered her treasonable head. Now let 
her have what she has invoked. Let it be war to the death. 
Let the monstrous Aggressor find no shelter, henceforth, under 
the flag she has profar:ed and betrayed. 
/ I rejoice that the time has come, at last, \vhcn a man may 
characterize this odious outrage upon humanity, in the lan- 
guage it merits, and have all his brethren say, Amen. All 
political controversies, in this land, have become narrowed to 
a single point : Do yon love Slavery ? — Yes, or No ? If you 
love it, then you love the mortal enemy of this Government, 
of CiviUzation, and of Christianity ; and if you are not a traitor, 
you avow yourself the friend of the Arch-Traitor, and the 
difference is not worth sticking for. On the other han^ if you 
don't love Slavery, you hate it ; and, hating it, you, ecirdially 



THB RELATIONS OP SLAVERY TO TUB WAR. 15 

sup})ort the Press, the Phitform, and the Pulpit, that are now 
locking hands to extenninute it. Thus, all former distinctions 
disappear, and all good men coalesce in one great Party, — the 
party of Patriotism, of Civilization, and of Religion. Who i« 
it that stands outside the Ring, with the assassins of Balti- 
more; and the piratical Crew that have conspired to burn our 
free cities, and murder our Chief Magistrate? There are 
none left. "VVe are all in the ranks of Liberty — a brotherhood 
of Patriots and Christians — with the noblest banner on earth 
waving over us. In past times, I have been among those who 
suffered some inconvenience by speaking against the great 
Despotism ; but I never murmured at the temporary disappro- 
bation under which I stood, for I saw that the fullness of time 
had almost come, when the sternest opponent of Slavery would 
be justified by all men. That dny is novi^ at hand, and my 
grateful heart glows in its beams. True, I regret that this 
consummation was not effected by peaceful means ; but we 
must accept what God appoints ; and since war is the instru- 
ment of our deliverance, I accept the war. I accept anything 
rather than a return to that servility of spirit, that allowed 
Slavery to lord it over the heritage of freemen. 

I compassionate the Southern people, so hopelessly involved 
in the swift-footed vengeance that must sweep their land. They 
are not, radically, more guilty than ourselves ; only the diaboli- 
cal system that has possessed them so long, has inoculated 
many of them with its own malignity. I feel like making great 
allowance for the bad schooling those people have suffered 
from. So deplorably has Slavery enervated tiioir moral princi- 
ples, and darkened their sense of right, that they no longer 
realize either what they do, or what they are. They are the 
saddest victims of their own oppression. They are like drunk- 
ards, besotted by their cups, and madly clinging to the terrible 
vice that has ruined them. ! for their sake — even more than 
for our own — -let us swear eternal hostility to the system that 
has perverted a noble people, and turned a fruitful land into 
a howling desert. True, wo must draw the sword against 
them, — for their salvation and ours, we must appeal to the God 



W THE RELATIONS OF SLAVERY TO THE WAR. 

of battles, — but, as Heaven is our witness, Compassion shall 
temper the warfare they have provoked ; and our vengeance 
fall, only, upon that .villainous despotism, which has brought 
discord between us. 



II. 
WAR AND PEACE: 

THE KEAL CAUSE-TEE FINAL TiEMEDY.* 



nut the Wisdom tliat is from above, is first pure, then peaceable.-JAMES iii, 17. 

I shall speak, this morning, of the Conditions and Securities 
of Peace. The topic is seasonable and important. In no expe- 
rience of mine, has it ever assumed such magnitude. Under 
a social convulsion that shakes the Kepublic, from its marbU; 
Capitol to the rudest cabin on the frontier,— under the turbu- 
lent emotions that pervade even our churches and our homes,— 
under the great emergency that has flowered out, in this calm 
May season, in martial l)anners, in the tramp of stern brigades, 
an<l in the crimson panoply of AVar,— who does not recall, with 
a poignant regi-et, the blessed days of concord and peace ? 

We are not a people who love dissension, or who profit by 
violence. We love Prace ; and we have shown ourselves will- 
ing, more than once, to make sacrifices in order to seciu'e it. 
Our taste, our temper, and our interest agree in this. We 
have not been fpiick to tire at an insult, and ready to avenge a 
wrong with a blow. ^Vc have not boasted that our honor was 
tender, or bragged that our valor could parali/.e^tlu; worl<l. 
We have had little to say about being a " chivalrous " people; 
though we have tried to pay our debts, to educate our children, 
and make our siuTOundings tidy and rcsi)ectable. We liavc; 
bt«cn patient and diligent— anxious to avoid unpleasant subjects, 
and willing, for the most part, to mind our own business. Our 

* This (riscourse was not written out in full. I cannot, tliei-cforc, rc-i"-o<Ui(:e Uio ciiUrc 
language employeil in Us delivery. 

3 



18 THE RELATIONS OF SLAVERY TO THE WAR. 

grievances we have handed over to the professional politicians, 
that they might fight them out, on the platform and in Con- 
gress, with as little scandal and loss of time as possible. So 
thoroughly has the love of peace possessed us, — I mean the 
great body of the people of the Free States, — that martial 
exercises had degenerated into farces and holidays ; the soldier 
had become a mere actor to the sanguine speculators in human 
progress ; and the great armories and navy yards were regarded 
as relics of Barbarism. And yet — with all this love of peace — 
with all our solicitude to guard it and perpetuate it — with all 
our confident persuasion that the millennium of peace would 
remain unbroken, — here we are, all at once, plunged to the 
neck in War. 

Who is to blame for this dire catastrophe ? Some charge 
the crime upon the Abolitionists ; some, upon the disappointed 
demagogues of the South ; some, upon the Republican Party, 
and others, upon the Ministers. I think the real responsibility 
rests with neither. The true source of the disorder is to be 
sought elsewhere, as I shall presently attempt to show. 

While the Nation has been falling into war, some of the 
Churches have been equally unfortunate. The catastrophe has 
been equally unforeseen — equally unprovoked — in the churches 
and iu the nation. For, if our fellow-citizens have been friends 
of peace, and solicitous to secure and perpetuate the genial 
blessing, the same may be said of our church people. How 
often have they said, with David, '^ Behold how good, and how 
pleasant a thing it is, for brethren to dwell together in unity." 
On the score of enjoyment, and of temporary interest, at least, 
how ardently is peace to be desired. Members of churches 
have alvvn \s folt this, and they have felt that many things might 
be safely sacrificed in order to pi-omote concord. The Clergy 
have had even stronger motives to preserve, by every menus 
in their power, unity and peace among their members; I'dp 
their pecuniary interest, their tranquility of mind, and their tem- 
porary reputation,. have all been involved in it. There can lu- 
little doubt — reflecting on the average temper of human nature, 
and on the real situation t)f the Clergy — that most of them 



TUB KBUATlOiNK OK SLAVKKV TO TJlli WAU. 10 

have suppressed some of tlieii- conviclioiis, and sol'Lened the 
severity of many a rel)uke as it nislie(l to tiieir hps for utt(!r- 
jince— from a dread of woundiiii^- somebody's feehngs, or 
alienating somehody's patronage— and thereby giving occasion 
!',.r turbulence and complaint. If those people who have taken 
oUence at what tlie preacher has actually spoken,— (believing 
that he has wantonly wounded them,) — could know how much 
moi-e he lias \vithheld, out of regard to their feelings, they 
would, perhaps, mitigate their censure. 

And 3'ct, with all our anxiety to i)reserve peace in the 
churches, ])c:u-e has not lieen preserved. With all our sacri- 
fices, witii all our forbearance, discord has broken in. With 
whom, or with what, rests the responsibility? I shall try to 
show whei-e the fault lies. This will lead me to e.xhibit— as I 
projjosed, in the beginning — the Conditions and Srrurifies nf 
[V;ice. 

If you were to enclose two Ijands of men in a tropicrd gar- 
<],,ii — liny, in I'aradise, if you i)lease — whose characters, tastes, 
interests, and ambitions were absolutely opposite, do you think 
it would be a peaceable community ? One band hves l)y rob- 
bery; the other, by industry. One is lawless and prolllgate, 
i\- )mineering and aggressive ; the other is diligent and decorous, 
thoughtful and just. What one admires, the other holds in 
contempt; and what one abhors, the other loves. With feel- 
ings, interests, and pursuits in radical conflict, how coidd they 
share the same province, in peace ? Grant that their domain 
contains bread enough for both, — grant that the dew and rain 
fall upon both alike, — and grant that some preacher stands 
among them, entreating them to love each other. Do you think 
that all this would avail to make a peaceable connmmity, where 
the radical elements of character, the desires and impulst-s of 
the two parties, were diametrically repugnant ? I tell you 
nay: there can be no real concord between things essentinlty 
evil and things essentially good. 

Now, the American Eepublic is that Paradise we have sujt- 
posed. Slave Society and Free -Society arc the two bands 
that possess it together. Their characters and tendencies, their 



20 TUB RELATIONS OF SLAVERY TO THE AVAR. 

aims aiul desires, arc completely hostile. Slave Society rests 
upon robbery — for it holds by force, what it has no chiiui to 
hold in e(|uity; asserting- that claim of property in man which 
is repugnant to natural justice. Free Society rests upon ilie 
voluntary industry of the people, and is gvuirded by equity. 
Slave Society tyrannizes over the weak; Free Society extends 
over the weak, the protection of Law. Slave Society makes 
brute force supreme; Free Society makes Justice supreme. 
In Slave Society, a handful of aristocrats govern the State, 
and the masses of the inhabitants are disregarded like cattle. 
Jn Free Society, political power is distributed among all the 
people ; and the most vigorous thinker is the mightiest man. 
Jn Slave Society, ever3'thing is at the mercy of an mitliinking 
and capricious Despotism, and the tendency of community is 
irretrievably downward ; but, in Free Society, great questions 
are settled by discussion, by reilection, by reason; — every 
man's interest is safe, because natural justice is revered, and 
everything is open to investigation; — and so the comnumity is 
continually being elevated, and fortified by the ]n-ivate con. 
science and public intelligence. 

Such are the two hostile interests that have been subsisting 
in this Ke[)nblic, from the beginning. Our fathers — with many 
scruples [Uid doubts — set them up housekeeping, in the same 
edifice, because they supposed that Slave Society would soon 
die a natural death, and they were st;arcely prepared to kill it 
by violent means. For eighty years, these two types of Society 
have been developing in the Nation, — eacli according to its 
natures, — each obedient to its own instinct. In the exact ratio 
of their growth, has been tlieir aggression upon each other. 
AVlien the house began to resound with their strife, all the 
])ea('e-m9kers turned out to settle the quarrel. The more they 
tried to settle it, the more fiercely the quarrel raged ; and, step 
by step, by a series of ineffectual (compromises that only irritated 
what they were expected to heal, we have journeyed on to 
Civil AVar. 

Now, there are men, I dare say, who will never cease to 
marvel at the perverse obstinacy of the American people, in 



THE RELATIONS OF SLAVEP.Y TO TllK WAK. -1 

keeping up agitation. Why coukrnt they let Slavery nlono ? 
Why could'nt Slavery let thoni alone ? A\Tiy eouUriit we have 
hud peace ? Why has no power been given us to put down 
this everlasting nigger question ? AVhy won't men let it alone ? 
and why, of all other men, won't our minister let it alone ? 
The mystery is, doubtless, very great ; but shall we not make 
:in attempt, this pleasant morning, to look into it, and gain at 
least a clue to the reason V 

Suppose you plant Canada thistles on one side of your 
garden, and a bed of strawberry plants on the opposite sitle, 
and charge them not to meddle with each other ! You will 
soon find that they will meddle with each other — not because 
they are willful, but because each nuist obey the law of its 
own nature. Now^ Slave Society and Free Society have their 
lioculiar instincts, and each develops agreeably to its ov.n law. 
They must encroach upon each other, they must eonlVict, they 
must quarrel; and, what God and Nature have thus made 
hostile, we cannot join together in harmony. 

Slave Society imbues those who grow up under its s})irit, 
with a despotic and lawless disposition. Free Society imbues 
people with a sense of justice, liberalizes and elevates the mind, 
and prepares the heart to feel the liveliest sympathy for the 
weak and the oppressed. Thus, the tendencies of the two 
systems — by their legitimate operation — involve collision and 
strife. How can we help ourselves ? Can the man who was 
nourished at the breast of Despotism, be otherwise than tyran- 
nical ? Can the offspring of Liberty disown his mother, or 
resist the generous impulses that spring from his blood ? AVe 
nuist all have noticed how vain it is, to attempt to override or 
suppress an hereditary trait; and these instincts that are born 
with us, and fostered by the society in whicii we are reared, 
cannot be controlled by any arbitrary edict. We may as well 
make up our minds to face the fact, first as last : There will be 
no peace — at best, only a short truce — while these belligerents 
occupy the same house. We need a public opinion, in America, 
that shall recognize this Fact, for this is the first condition of 
Peace. 



22 THE RELATIONS OF SLAVERY TO THE WAR. 

We have ;ill railed, more or less, at the ultra men of the 
South — at the " fire-eaters," as they have been named ; — but 
we might as well rail at the Canada thistles, when they manifest 
a desire to monopolize the garden. They are obeying the 
instincts of Slave Society; and your entreaties and expostula- 
tions — as the event has repeatedly proved — might as well have 
been addressed to thistles as to that class of men. 

Suppose a company of Indian Thugs come into the neigh- 
Ixirhood, buy a certain amount of real estate,- and settle among 
IIS. It is the profession of the Thug to murder; and, in him,, 
the tendency to murder has the force of an instinct. Murders 
are perpetrated; the community is in arms; and the Thugs 
are disposed of agreeably to law and equity. But, however 
heinous the crime, it was no greater than was to have been 
ex]iccted, in view of the habits of the Thugs. So with Slave 
Society. All its habitudes and instincts are aggressive and 
destructive. Don't abuse my metaphor, and misapprehend my 
idea.' I am not denying that individual slave-holders may be 
very fair men. Some natures are proof against the worst 
social influences. I speak of the system of Slavery, in its 
essence and general effects. And I say, without the fear of 
my position being successfully controverted, that the most 
odious developments of Southern Society are the legitimate 
outgrowths of Slavery, — things which it is idle to protest 
against, so long as we foster the seed that produces them. 

We have complained, also, against the ultra Anti-Slavery 
men. But, candidly and philosophically viewed, what have 
tliey done but obey the instincts of Free Society ? It was 
just as natural for Free Society to develop the Abolitionist 
party, as it was for your strawberry bed to throw out " run- 
ners " toward the Canada thistles. How futile it is to quarrel 
with any such settled tendency of nature. How unwise it is 
to ignore such facts, instead of accommodating ourselves to 
them ! We might as reasonably attempt to resist gravitation, 
or any other natural law, as attempt to carry out a peace 
policy, in violation of these immutable conditions. 



THE RELATIONS OF SLAVERY TO THE WAR. 23 

Free Society fills every bosom, that is open to its influences, 
with the love of free institutions — with the love of justice, 
mercy, and manhood ; — and it inspires us, at the same time, 
with an irrepressible abhorrence of the injustice, the profligacy, 
and the ignorance which are the fruits of Slavery. Under this 
influence, it is impossible that men should hold their peace. 
The full heart will make its emotions audible in burning w^ords. 
Almost involuntarily — almost against a man's will — he thun- 
ders out his hatred of tyranny, and chants the hymns of Free- 
dom. It is the Holy Spirit of God that impels his utterance ; 
and Timidity and Compromise have no padlocks strong enough 
to shut the mouth of a live man, when the trumpet sounds and 
the Hour has come. 

Thus far, I have tried to show the true conditions of Peace, 
from the nature of the two interests that are warring with 
each other, in this country. I shall now proceed to show that 
the preceding view is confirmed by the principle brought to 
view in the text : " The wisdom that is from above, is first pure, 
then peaceable." 

Consider, then, how ob^•ious it is, as a general fact, that, 
when a conflict takes place, in society, between the good ele- 
ments and the bad, there can be no permanent peace, imtil the 
bad elements are eradicated. A bad princij)le in tlie social 
system, is like a disease in the human system ; — it is a source 
of irritation and unrest, to the whole body politic. The patient 
is in ceaseless pain, apprehension, and depression ; and, even 
when he affects to rest, he moans, and tosses his limbs about, 
and starts as from ghastly dreams. How will you restore tlio 
man to his natural tranquility, and to the enjoyment of his 
existence ? Will 3^ou sit at his bed, and sing a lullaby ? Will 
you expatiate on the blessings of rest ? "Will you remintl liini 
how commendable it is to be quiet and serene ? Or, will yon 
endeavor to expel the man's disease, and ensure him ti-aiKjuilily, 
by first endowing him with health ? 

My bretliren, that patient is our Countr3^ If you wuuld 
not mock tlie misery of a man, by affecting to lull him to rest 
while his malady rendered rest impossible — w hy will you mock 



24 THE RELATIONS OP SLAVERY TO THE WAR. 

the ao-miy of our country, by siiioing lullubys, and ignoring 
the distemper that brings all the pain ? American Society has 
always had in its blood one virulent distemper. That distem- 
per has been the source of all our trouble, agitation, discord 
and danger ; and now it has assumed an alarming phase. It 
has broken out in the ghastly form of treason. Now, what 
does the Crisis require, at the hands of reasonable and faithful 
men ? "What can it require, but the radical cure of the Patient ? 
Purify the social system, and the American Eepublic will have 
peace. This is the inflexible logic of the hour, in my estima- 
tion, and all remedies that come short of it, will only betray 
us into deeper misfortune. 

If you ask by what means Slavery is to be abolished, in this 
country, I must say, that I am not competent to inform you. 
But, coming events will declare them. God will show us the 
means, as the great controversy goes forward. Let there be 
a will, and there will be a way opened. The course of Eight- 
cousness is never impeded, except by human prejudice and 
fear. Meantime, I hold it the patriot's first duty,— next to the 
rescue of our soil from Rebellion,— to exert himself to create 
a right public sentiment, in relation to the final disposal of 
Slavery. The great question will come before the American 
people— sooner, perhaps, than w^e apprehend ; and it is of the 
first importance that we be prepared to meet it, in the true 
sph-it of Christianity, of Eeason, of Philosophy and of Justice. 
And I appeal to all my brethren and fellow citizens— whether, 
in time past, we have not been too devoted to the interests of 
partizanship, and too negligent of the claims of our Country, — 
whether we have not been too jealous of having Eeligion 
approach the province of Politics,— whether we do not now 
obviously need the light of the heavenly wisdom to reveal the 
path of duty,— and whether the hour has not come foi- men 
of honor and intelligence, to put away all the prejiKlircs and 
iealousies that have hitherto blinded tluun; while they bring 
all the gifts of their nature together, and offer them— as an 
oblation to God— on the altar of Christian Patriotism. 



THE RELATIONS OP SLAVERY TO THE WAR. 25 

I have spoken these words in the interests of Peace ; and 
because I know that no peace is possible except by apprehend- 
ing the real cause of the disturbance, and manfully putting it 
away. I love peace so well — I prize it so highly — that I will 
do what I can to secure a substantial peace, and not a mere 
deceptive truce. This Slavery agitation has not only been the 
bane of the Nation, but the sorrow of the Church, these many 
years; but there is no hope of getting rid of the agitation, so 
long as the exciting cause continues to exist. For the sake of 
every interest that is dear to us, as Patriots and as Christians, — 
for the sake of social tranquility and brotherly love, — let us 
unite to put down the great offence. For my own part, I am 
willing to incur temporary censure, and to suffer temporary 
loss, if I can contribute anything to the formation of a public 
sentiment that shall restore true peace to this Country, by 
renovating the social system. 



III. 
THE CLERQY: 

THE EELATION OF THE PULPIT TO SLAVERY. 

" Come now and let us reason together, saith the Lord." — Isaiah i, 18. 

The faculty of reason is the crowning glory of our nature. 
By virtue of it, men are capable of immeasurable improvement. 
It is the bond between them and superior beings. It is tlie 
great attribute — common to God and man — by which the 
Divine Being communicates his will ; estalilishes intercourse 
with his creatures, and sways over them a moral government. 
Reason is, to a human being, just what a rudder is to a ship, — 
it is the means by which God steers him in the direction of the 
monil law. 

1'tioic ;s always hope of people who are susceptible of being 
reasoned with. The better argument, the nobler influence, 
sway;; thorn. The evidence from without, is justified by the 
tribunal within, and they say, " This is conclusive ; this is 
enough." It is only the people who can not, or will not, 
reason, who baffle us to the last; and who — hearing neither 
Moses nor the prophets — would not be persuaded though one 
should rise from the dead. As Henry More quaintly observes : 
" When a man is so fugitive and unsettled that he will not 
stand to the verdict of his own Faculties, one can no more 
fasten anything upon him, than he can write in the water, or 
tic knots of the wind." 

As God has no higher influence to exert than the influence 
of reason, He can delegate none more potent to His servants. 



THE RELATIONS OF SLAVERY TO THE WAR. Zl 

The ministers of His kino;flom are authorized to reason ^viMl 
mankind; and they are bound to reason faithfully, kind)}', [-'.•:- 
sistently. But the result iimst he left to the Searcher oi : .; 
hearts, and the Judge of all motives. 

It is our lot to live in eventful days, and to particij^ate in 
momentous controversies. It is our fortune to be troubled and 
tried. It is our fate to be divided and shaken. Every man 
must be responsible for his own actions, and God shall be the 
Judge between us. It is the lot of the Clergy of the Freo 
States to differ, widely, from part of their congregations, on 
the subject of ministerial duty. It is their fate to incur, on 
account of this difference, no little censure and opposition. I 
have called this congregation together, this evening, for ihe 
})urpose of reasoning with those who object to the position 
taken by the clergy, in their occasional discussion of national 
affairs. 

I. In the first place, let us group together three or four 
significant facts : 

First — The Clergy of the Free States, with few exceptions, 
hold the same views concerning American Slavery. Divided 
into various sects, arrayed under hostile denominational ban- 
ners, and rivals in ecclesiastical influence, they are substantially 
united in their estimate of Slavery, and of the treatment it 
should receive at the hands of a Christian people. Such unani- 
mity of opinion probably never before characterized a body of 
intelligent men, so variously trained, and difiering so widely on 
other questions. 

Second — What is the fair and natural inference to be drawn 
from this fact ? Have these men entered into a conspiracy to 
hold and propagate particular sentiments ? This can not be 
the case, for there is scarcely any intercourse between them, 
beyond their denominational lines; and they are too much 
estranged by sectarian jealousy to have come into any pre- 
meditated concert of action. Have they any personal interest 
to subserve, by taking an attitude hostile to Slavery, or by 
favoring the ascendency of a particular party? This can 
hardly be ; for they seek no office in the gift of any party, and 



28 THE RELATIONS OF SLAVERY TO THE WAR. 

they covet no spoils consequent upon a partizan triumph. If 
there be a class of men in this land, above the suspicion of 
being actuated by mercenary motives, in their political action, 
or in their strictures upon public measures, it is the Clergy. 
As a class, they live by the favors of no party, but they arc 
independent of all parties. Their private interest is in no 
way affected by the vicissitudes of parties ; and whether their 
influence is cast in favor of a particular party, or against it, it 
is not cast in the interest of selfishness. Some of the Clergy 
have, indeed, spoken to the prejudice of their pockets and of 
their peace; but no man can convict them of having been 
actuated by a sordid motive, in trying to awaken the public 
conscience to the iniquities of Pro-Slavery politics. 

If the Clergy have thus imbibed strong Anti-Slavery con- 
victions, without concert or mutual understanding, — and if 
they are now proclaiming these convictions, independently of 
any private motives, and, in many instances, against their per- 
sonal interest, — what is the reasonable inference ? The infer- 
ence is, that they are, at least, sincere in their convictions, and 
honorable in their purposes. Are they, then, so ignorant, or 
so imbecile, as to be disqualified for holding a weighty opinion 
on- questions involving the well-being of their country ? If so, 
it is remarkable that they should be located among the learned 
Professions, and referred to, in the familiar language of Society, 
as Teachers. What, Teachers ! — and not qualified to decide 
whether the discussion of Slavery comes, or does not come, 
within the province of the Pulpit ? Teachers ! — and not 
qualified to state the simple facts concerning the history of the 
system, the relations of the Church thereto, and the estimate 
formed of it by Christians and Patriots, in the different ages 
and departments of Christendom ? Teachers ! — and yet con- 
tradicted by hot-headed party men, who do not even claim 
extended information, and who derive their apinions from fifth- 
rate newspapers, notoriously conducted in the interests of 
partizanship ? I ask you all, as men responsible for your senti- 
ments and your actions, what is thej'casonable inference from 
these things? 



THE RELATIONS OF SLAVERY TO THE WAR. 29 

TutRD — Not only ure nearly all the Clergy of the Free 
States, in all denominations, in agreement as regards the sub- 
ject of Slaver}^, but an immense majority of the jseo/»Ze of these 
States, manifest a similar unanimity of sentiment. This has 
not always been the fact ; but it has come to be. A deliberate 
observation of the effects of Slavery in American Society, — a 
prolonged experience of the tendency of the system to demor- 
alize our politics, — have brought almost all the intelligent 
people of the Free States, as well as a respectable minority in 
the Slave States, to the belief, that Slavery is not only wrong 
in the abstract, but a pernicious and dtlngerous thing to foster. 

Fourth — With the Clergy, and this large majority of the 
American people, all Christian nations agree. The public 
Opinion of Europe is about unanimous in condemnation of 
Slavery ; the last vestige of the system is just now disappear- 
ing, in Russia ; and there is not a man, among the great 
nationahties of the East, eminent for either learning, patriotism, 
or piety, who would dishonor himself far enough to become 
its advocate. 

II. So much for Facts. Now I ask, what conclusion a 
reasoning mind must naturally draw from them ? That the 
Clergy are in the way of their duty, or out of it, in the hostile 
attitude they occupy toward Slavery ? 

Here are two great Armies being joined in conflict : On one 
side. Freedom — on the other, Despotism. On the side of Free- 
dom, are Civilization, with all the Arts that have embellished the 
world, — Learning, that has opened illimitable fields to the mind 
of man, — and the Christian Religion, that has refined our social 
life and sanctified our homes, while revealing, beyond this 
clouded isle of Care and Trouble, a sweet celestial shore. On 
the side of Despotism, is brutal Ignoi-ance, hand-locked with 
debasing Superstition. She is marshaled on by I'uffianly vio- 
lence, with Law and Justice trampled under her feet. Beliind 
her, are Desolation and Mourning, and the long perspective of 
Barbarism. 

Such are the two parties now arrayed in hostile lines. Can 
you doubt which side the Clergy must espouse ? Can you 



30 THE RELATIONS OP SLAVERY TO THE WAR. 

wonder at the choice they have niacle ? As friends of their 
Country, — as champions of their race, — as teachers of their 
Eeligion,— how could they hesitate ? Do you claim that they 
should not commit themselves,— that they should be indifferent 
to the great decision now impending ? Then God should take 
the souls out of their hosoms, and give them an oyster's life, 
in place of the immortal love of liberty He has kindled there ; 
for, constituted as we are, it is impossible to be indifferent 
when swords are to be crossed in the name of our Country's 
fame and freedom. But they will divide their congregations. 
This is to be lamented, but it is no excuse for silence. A min- 
ister better divide the spirit from the body, than be dumb as a 
clam, at such an hour as this. There is nothing a minister can 
suffer from, half so calamitous as the loss of self-respect ; for 
that is the mainspring of whatever power there may be in the 
man. It is unpleasant to be misjudged and traduced ; but, to 
be a conscious poltroon is to forfeit every claim to the confi- 
dence of community. 

If a minister will be a faithful Leader, and not a ductile 
dough-face, he will be in advance of some of his people. He 
will\reak ground that is not familiar— not already tracked 
over by the feet of the multitude. It is his business, as a 
Teacher, to keep on the frontier of Public Opinion,— to be 
governed by the facts that have come to his knowledge, and 
not by the irrational prejudices that time has refuted, and that 
he can no longer respect. It is his business, as the Friend of 
his Church and as the Servant of Mankind, to keep abreast of 
the best thought that is moving through Society,— to keep in 
the van of Christian Civilization ; and he should not be expected 
to tack and drift, because some of his people— not looking from 
his stand-point— think that he has transcended his province. 
Such things should neither change his purpose, nor perturb 
his spirit ;^but he should say, "I'm sorry, brethren, we're not 
to sail together any longer; but, since you insist on paddling 
out of the fleet, you shall go with our blessing. We must 
sail by the Chart ; and we can't alter the course of the flag- 
ship, for the sake of keeping you in the squadron." 



THE RELATIONS OF SLAVERY TO THE ^VAR. 31 

III, A minority of our people have contracted tlie habit of 
declaring, that " a minister has no business to meddle witli 
Slavery." There are a few persons, holding this opinion, 
whom I sincerely esteem, and I desire to reason with them on 
the question. It is possible that 1 shall present considerations 
which have not occurred to them, and which will tend to place 
the subject in a different light. In the first place, in affirming 
that " a minister has no business to preach against Slavery,'' 
you assume to know, better than he does, what his business 
really is. I think you are bound to show how you come to be 
so much better informed than I am, on a subject to -which I 
have given my chief attention, but whii-h lies outside of your 
own calling. 

AVhen you employ a lawyer to conduct a cause, do you 
undertake to instruct him how to extract his testimony, or how 
to make his plea ? Or, do you concede that he is the best 
judge of his own business ; and that any interference on your 
part would be both a reflection on liis intelligence, and a 
damage to your interest? When you call a physician to 
minister to your malady, do you, at the same time, profess to 
understand the case better than he does, or ofter to dictate 
what remedies shall be employed ? If you actually supposed 
yourself wiser than the physician, you would not send for him 
at all. 

Now you employ a man to stand in the pulpit, as a Teacher 
of the Christian Eeligion, and of the moral obligations of man- 
kind. In engaging him to teach, you are supposed to believe 
him qualified to teach. You believe him qualified, because he 
has made Religion and Morals his special study. You have, 
yourself, general impressions and convictions on those subjects, 
(as you have general impressions and convictions in relation to 
liaw and medicine,) but you have not qualified yourself to be 
a Teacher of one, more than of the other. And yet — (now 
mark your inconsistency,) — when that man, whom you have 
placed in the pulpit expressly to teach, happens to oftend some 
of your prejudices, you tell him that ho has made a mistake, — 
that he has no business to say such and surh things, — and 



32 THE RELATIONS OP SLAVERY TO THE WAR. 

sometimes you even deny matters of fact, merely because they 
had not come to your knowledge. By this course, you reverse 
the relations of the parties ; for, whereas you jn-omoted me 
awhile ago to be your Teacher, in relation to the specific sub- 
iect which I had made my life study, you are now assuming to 
be mine. But, the worst phase of your censure is, that you 
assume to know my duty better than I know it myself, which 
is an aggression upon my personal liberty, to which I can sub- 
mit on no account. 

Why has a minister no business to preach against Slavery ? 
It is universally assumed, and believed, that it is his business 
to expose every form of sin ; and, by making it odious and 
repugnant, — and by exhibiting its destructive consequences, — 
persuade mankind to put it away. Among the sins of the 
world, what rank does Slavery occupy ? This can be deter- 
mined, only, by reflecting what Slavery is— in its essence and 
in its effects. 

"Slavery," is defined by Webster, as "a state of entire 
subjection to the will of another." " A Slave," says the Code 
of Louisiana, "is in the power of the master to whom he 
belongs. The master may sell him, dispose of his person, his 
industry, his labor ; he can do nothing, possess nothing, nor 
acquire anything, but which must belong to his master." In 
the language of the Laws of South Carolina, " Slaves shall be 
deemed, taken, reputed, and adjudged to be chattels personal 
in the hands of their masters, and possessions to all intents 
and purposes whatsoever." 

Under the mildest form, then. Slavery asserts an absolute 
ownership in man. That is, under Slavery, one human being 
may own another human being, in the same sense in which you 
own a horse or a dog. The slave's person is absolutely at the 
master's disposal, — the slave's labor, virtue, and will, are in the 
master's power,— just as the body of any brute, which you may 
own, is in your power. Now, in asserting this absolute claim 
of ownership in human beings. Slavery usurps the prerogative 
of the Almighty. "All souls are mine, saith the Lord." Since 
all men belong to God, no man can belong to his brother man. 



THH RELATIONS OF SLAVERY TO THE WAR. 33 

God gave man dominion over the beasts of the field, the fowl 
of the air, and the fish of the sea, but not over his own unage ; 
and any claim of property in man, is unlawful and impious : — 
unla\^i"ul, because not authorized by the Divine Statute, and 
impious, because a flagrant invasion of God's pecuUar pre- 
rogative. Thus, Slavery is a great wrong, in its very essence. 
Even where the master is kind, and where the servitude is 
mild, the slave is wi-onged in this : that his manhood is ignored, 
and he is ranked with cattle ; and that none of the thoughts, 
privileges or rights, natural to a human being, are secured to 
him. The man who is kind to his horse or his dog, wnll pro- 
bably be kind to his slave ; but, the very fact that the slave is 
degraded to the level of the horse and dog, constitutes the 
moral indignity which o^ir Eeligiou sternly rebukes. 

Eemember, then, that Slavery is wrong, in its very essence — 
in every conceivable instance. In the next place, consider 
what an outrage it becomes where the master is cruel, licen- 
tious, depraved. It is not necessary to suppose slave-holders 
any worse, by nature, than other men ; though no reflecting 
person can fail to see that the eflects of the system are exceed- 
ingly demoralizing. It cannot be denied that those who are 
abusive or cruel to their brute property, must be at least 
equally so to men and women, who, like the brutes, are abso- 
lutely in their power. The master who is arbitrary and capri- 
cious, profligate and violent, has a power over the person of 
the slave, that is little short of infernal. I do not speak of 
blows from the lash, or rigorous service in the field, mitig.ated 
by no reward and cheered by no hope. The slave so circum- 
stanced, is exposed to worse indignities. The honor of man 
has no defense. The modesty of woman has no refuge. Tho 
best instincts of human nature are brutally violated. Not one 
of the domestic sanctities, or relations, is secure from despotic 
and lawless outrage. "We may try to flatter ourselves that 
such instances are rare. Unhappily, they are frequent. Nor 
is it so much the fault of the slave-holder as it is the necessary 
consequence of the system of Slavery, which disarms the weak, 
5 



34 THE RELATIONS OP SLAVERY TO THE WAR. 

incites the strong, and oflfers both the temptation to outrage, 
and boundless opportunity to satiate the worst passions. 

Let any man reflect what human nature is, among the ave- 
rage men of the South, or even of the North ; let him reflect 
that those men are the absolute masters of other men, of 
women, and of children ; let him remember that the slaves 
have no defense against the avarice, the lust, or the cruelty of 
their masters — and how can he fail to see that the system ofiers 
every invitation to outrage, and that it involves, as its daily 
consequence, the blackest sins against which the law of God 
is arrayed ? 

If we look at the social results of Slavery, as developed in 
the ci\alization of the South, we see that the fruit is consistent 
with the seed. All good influences retire before the scourge. 
Education is discouraged. Liberty of speech is denied. Enter- 
prize withers, and even the soil becomes sterile. The Church, 
poisoned by the baneful social atmosphere, mutters delirious 
sophistry, and becomes the pimp of the slave-holder. Pre- 
sently — all the vigorous timbers of Society having rotted 
away — the foundations of social order break up. Entire States 
slump into Barbarism. Anarchy comes up, ^vith mobs for its 
authority, and with Treason for its watch-word. It is the 
last result of Slavery — private hcentiousness reaching out to 
demoralize communities — the despotism of the private Planta- 
tion raving to assert itself in the Capitol of the Nation. It is 
the great scarlet Abomination culminating in maturest bloom. 

Such is Slavery — a system combining, in its essence and in 
its results, a greater volume of Iniquity than can be found 
under any other name. Yet, we are told that a Christian 
minister has no business to meddle with it ! God says to the 
minister, " Cry aloud and spare not : lift up thy voice, like a 
trumpet, and show my people their sins !" But, some of the 
congregation say, "Nay; thei'e be sins among us which the 
minister is not to expose : He must be silent concerning our 
great national Iniquity, lest yieople accuse him of ' preaching 
politics,' and he break up the Church !" That is to say, the 
minister may denounce those sins that are like m,ole-hills — and 



THE RELATIONS OT SLAVERY TO THE WAR. 35 

especially those antiquated sins that have ceased to be prac- 
ticed ; but, before this great Malakotf of Iniquity, that threatens 
to desolate a hemisphere, he must be dumb. In other words, 
a Christian Church, organized expressly to malce war upon all 
sin, is in danger of going to pieces, if the pastor offers to wake 
up the the public conscience in relation to the most notorious, 
and most dangerous sin, now thriving in this world ! 

I have not alluded to the most abhorrent features disclosed in 
the practical operation of Slavery. I have said nothing of the 
necessary reaction of the system, in demoralizing white fami- 
lies — in corrupting the youth, in destroying female delicacy, 
and thus tainting, at the domestic fountain, the moral life of 
Society. I have not alluded to the disgusting exhibitions of 
immodesty and brutality, that are presented in the slave-mar- 
kets ; exhibitions that degrade the nominally Christian cities 
of New Orleans, Savannah and Charleston, to the level of 
Constantinople. Nor have I said anything of those well- 
authenticated cases, in which the enormity of Slavery culmi- 
nates in a union of lust and avarice, that outrages brutehood 
as much as it shames humanity, — cases in which the master 
becomes bound to his slave by the closest tie of nature, and 
sells his own child into perdition, as he would sell a calf to the 
butcher ! 

These are the incidental and natural effects of Slavery. 
They are the notorious fruits of the system. If there are 
any persons among us ignorant of the facts, or disposed to 
question them, they have neither reflected on the nature of 
Slavery, nor availed themselves of information accessible to 
any person disposed to investigate the subject. Such, I repeat, 
are the nature and effects of Slavery; aud yet, it has been 
said, that a preacher has no business to lift up his voice against 
this colossal sin ! If it is not his proper work to expose this 
unspeakable outrage, I beg to know what his proper work is. 
It has been said, that the stability of our Churches would be 
periled, if preachers persisted in exposing Slavery to the con- 
demnation of tiie Divine law ! Is it meant b}' this, that there 
are men in the Churches, who will support them only on con- 



36 THE KELATIONS OP SLATERY TO THE W^R. 

dition that ministers remain blind and dumb before this intole- 
rable wrong ? Is it meant that the Churches have become, in 
some sense, allies of the slave-holder— since, by exposmg his 
sins, we rupture their unity ? 

IV. Ha\'ing now shown that Slavery is of such a wicked 
and destructive nature, that ministers must assail it, in the 
name of their Eeligion, if they are obhgated to assail any 
sin whatsoever— I proceed to show that the position of the 
Clergy is fortified by the general sentiment of Christendom, as 
expressed by Theologians, by Jurists, and by Statesmen. 

Lactantius, who was tutor to the son of Constantine, " was 
faithful in his denunciation of Slaver}'-, and reckoned the work 
of redeeming captives and slaves the most divine of human 
employments." 

St. Cyprian, an eminent Christian mart}T of the Second 
Century, says, in his Address to the Bishops of Numedia, 
" Both religion and morality make it a duty for us to work for 
the deliverance of the captives. They are sanctuaries of Jesus 
Christ, who have fallen into the hands of the Infidel. It is 
Jesus himself whom we ought to consider in our captive 

brothers ; it is Him whom we should deliver from captivity 

Him who has delivered us from death." In his Treatise against 
Demetrius, he uses the following severe languao-e : " You 
expect from your slave that he be devoted to you, man of a 
day. Is this slave less a man than you ? He came into the 
world on the same conditions,— your equal by his birth, by his 
death,— provided with the same organs ; endowed, as well as 
you, with a reasonmg soul ; called to the same hopes ; subject 
to the same laws, as well for the present life, as for the time to 
come. You oblige him to obey you and be subject to you ; 
and, if he happen to forget for one moment the right }'ou have 
to command him, — if he neglect to execute your orders with a 
rigorous precision, — misfortune to him ! . . . Miserable 
man ! While you know so well how to mamtain your quality 
of master over a man, you are not wilMng to recognize the 
Master and Lord of all men !" 



TIIB EELATIONS OF SLAVERY TO THE WAR. 37 

St. Ambrose, who lived in the Third Centurj, held similar 
sentiments ; and he ordered that priests should sell, if neces- 
sary, even the sacred vases of the Churches, to redeem slaves. 
How difterent the feelings of that great Prelate from the policy 
of those who would close a minister's lips against any con- 
demnation of Slaveiy, for the sake of retaining a few dollars 
in the treasury of the Church ! 

When Louis X, in 1815, enfranchised all the serfs belonging 
to the Crown, he made the noble declaration that " Slavery is 
contrary to nature, which intended that all men by birth should 
be free and equal ; that, since his Kingdom was denominated 
the Kingdom of the Franks, or Freemen, it appeared just and 
right that the fact should correspond with the name." 

As early as the Fifth Century, Slavery was condemned from 
the chair of St. Peter. Pope Paul III " imprecated a curse 
on those Europeans who should enslave Indians, or any other 
class of men." Leo the Xth, declared that " not the Christian 
religion only, but nature herself cries out against the state of 
Slavery." "In 1102, St. Anselm hold a national council in St. 
Peter's Church, at Westminster, in which, a canon of the 
council prescribed — " Let no one, henceforth, presume to carry 
on the wicked traffic, by which men in England have hitherto 
been sold like brute animals." 

Wycliffe, who has been called " rhe morning star of the 
Reformation," asserted " that it was contrary to the principles 
of the Christian religion, that any one should be a slave." 
Coming down to our own country, we find the sentiments of 
the great Christian leaders the same, as regards this subject. 
Whitfield and Edwards, the champions of Calvanism ; Wesley, 
the father of Methodism; Winchester, the Universalist, and 
Charming, the Unitarian, were all bold in their denunciations 
of Slavery. 

Such has been the feeling, and such the practice, of the 
Christian Church, in all its branches and in all ages ; and yet, 
in opposition to this " cloud of witnesses " — absolutely filling 
the liorizon of Christian History — men now undertake to main- 
tain, that a minister deviates from hi-s legitimate calling in 



38 THE RELATIONS OP SLAVERY TO THE "WAR. 

exposing this wicked system. The truth is, that he deviates 
from his true caUing, only, when he is persuaded to let the 
subject alone. Then, all the faithful standard-bearers of Chris- 
tianity, who have maintained the cause of Freedom, in past 
ages, through good and evil report, rise up in judgment against 
the timid time-server, who denies his Lord by forsaking those 
who are in bonds ! 

But I must hasten on, and show you how Slavery is regarded 
by the jurisprudence of Christendom. Sir William Blackstone, 
who reiUciias to this day, I believe, one of the best authorities 
in the lesral profession, holds the following language : " The 
law that supports Slavery, must necessarily be condemned as 
cruel; for every feeling of human nature advocates liberty. 
Slavery is introduced through human wickedness ; but God 
advocates liberty by the nature he has given to man. In popu- 
lar language, we speak of good laws, and bad laws. The 
Bible, which generally uses the popular language, speaks of 
' mischief framed by a law.' It remains true — strictly and 
philosophically speaking — there is no law contrary to equity." 

In this doctrine, all the British Judges of eminence, are 
beheved to have concurred — excepting only the infamous Jef- 
freys, whose dissent, considering the character of the man, 
really lends weiglit to the opinions of such jurists as Black- 
stone, Mansfield, and Chesterfield. 

The estimate of Slavery, made by our own most illustrious 
statesmen, is well known, already. I will detain you long 
enough to quote the testimony of a few of them, by way 
of completing the argument. Almost all the leading men of 
the revolutionary period, have left us the testimony of their 
hostility to Slavery. Governour Morris declared before the 
Constitutional Convention — " I never will concur in upholding 
domestic Slavery. It is a nefarious Institution. It is the 
curse of Heaven." William Pin(ikney characterized Slavery as 
" iniquitous and most dishonorable ; founded in a disgraceful 
traflftc ; as shameful in its continuance as in its origin." He 
adds that, " by the eternal principles of natural justice, no 
master has a right to hold his slave in bondage a single hour." 



THE RELATIONS OP SLAVERY TO THE WAR, 39 

John Jay, the first Chief Justice of the United States, stig- 
matized Slavery as *' a sin of crimson dye." Patrick Henry, 
the orator of the Eevolution, said : " I will not — I cannot 
justify it." Four of the early Presidents have recorded their 
testimony against Slavery. Washington said, that it was 
" among his first wishes to see some plan adopted by which 
Slavery might be abolished by law ; and that for this purpose, 
his suflrage should not be wanting." John Adams declared 
that, " consenting to Slavery is a sacrilegious breach of trust." 
Madison believed it " wrong to admit in the Constitution, the 
idea of property in man." But Jefierson excels all his con- 
temporaries in the amplitude of his testimony on the subject. 
He declared his belief that "the day is not distant when the 
public mind of this country must bear and adopt the proposi- 
sition for emancipation, or worse will follow ;" and that " if 
something is not done, and soon done, we shall be the murder- 
ers of our own children." He characterizes Slavery as " a 
hideous blot," — as " a bondage, one hour of which, is fraught 
with more misery than ages of that which the people of this 
country rose in rebellion to oppose." In the latest of his pub- 
lished letters, he says : ' " My sentiments on the subject of 
Negro Slavery, have long since been in possession of the 
public, and time has only served to give them stronger root. 
The love of justice and the love of country plead equally the 
cause of these people ; and it is a mortal reproach to us, that 
they should have pleaded it so long in vain." 

I have thus tried to lay the subject of Slavery before you, 
so that you may see the essence of the system, its pernicious 
effects, and the light in which it has been regarded by the best 
minds in Christendom, throughout all ages. No person, who 
has attended me through the discussion, can fail to see the 
obligation resting upon a minister of Christ, to expose and 
resist this monstrous iniquity. If the Gospel of Christ is hos- 
tile to any sin, it is hostile to this. If the Clergy have 
authority to rebuke any wrong, they are obligated to face the 
system of Slaveiy with their sternest indignation. 



40 THE RELATIONS OF SLAVERY TO THE WAR. 

Especially urgent, at.thii time, are the claims of Patriotism 
and Liberty upon the American Clergy. You have sent your 
young men to the field, to vindicate your country's honor. 
You have declared that it is every man's duty to do the best 
he can, in hia ovra province, to aid his country, in this hour of 
its peril. Shall the Clergy of this land do nothing ? only 
mutter abstractions that nobody now hears or heeds ? Is there 
nothing ministers can do to aid the holy cause that fills every 
man's bosom ? If there be anything, what is it ? They have 
their function, at this time, as you have yours. As soldiers of 
Jesus Christ, let them be as bold and faithful as the men you 
have sent to the tented field. Let them bring the Divine Wis- 
dom — which they are authorized to administer — to interpret 
the problem of the times. Let them show you what Keligion 
has to say about the solemn crisis in which you stand. Lot 
them persuade you to hear the Divine voice, that speaks out 
of the smoke and thunder of this great convulsion. 

Will you have your minister serve you in trivial matters, 
and will you reject his assistance when your house is on fire ? 
Look at your situation, in this eventful hour that is even now 
sounding over head. The unchained devil of Despotism is 
loose in the land. The veil is rent from the temple of Liberty. 
Over half the area vi tiiis Republic, the darkness of Barba- 
rism has fallen at noi Jii-day, and the Genius of America hangs 
crucified among thieves I Do you want your minister to 
ignore all this, lest, in the fervor of his soul, he oflfend some- 
body's scruples, and inadvertently " preach Politics ?" Do 
you want him to be a spaniel parasite, gliding about between 
the legs of taller men, and barking for the man who will give 
him the most meat ? Or, do you want him to stand up as 
God's freeman, testifying to what he knows, esteeming his 
manhood greater than pelf, humanity more sacred than any 
Church interest, — and so striving to reach the summit of the 
great Occasion ? 

For my part, I have not waited to this hour, to make my 
choice. I esteem Churches so far as they subserve the inter- 
ests of right and of truth ; but when they abjure these, they 



THE RELATIONS OP SLAVERY TO THE WAR. 41 

forfeit the blessing of God, and the respect of man. Never 
fear that the free and strong assertion of righteousness will 
harm the Kingdom of God. If the Church is imbued with 
spiritual life, it will abide the shock ; but, if it is marked only 
by a dead faith, it better be buried. No earnest man stands 
in the pulpit, in our time, to galvanize a corpse ; and, when the 
event has proved that there is no life in the Church to respond 
to the claims of humanity — how clear it will be, that we do 
not belong to the body of Christ, and are not members of his ! 

In conclusion, I repeat what I said in this pulpit, some 
months ago : 

Any society may secure a timid, deferential servant who shall 
repeat the truisms of morality and the pass-word of the sect, 
in the dull monotone of a soul caged up from heaven's liberty ; 
but, how much better to have a self-poised, conscientious 
teacher, whose formula of ministerial duty is not borrowed, but 
fashioned by his own creative instinct, and who stands, not by 
human sufferance only, but by a divine sanction, witnessed by 
personal force, influence and success. A society may find " a 
beloved pastor," trained in all the proprieties of clerical pru- 
dence, who holds no opinions that are not marketable, and who 
dares not confess what ticket he votes at the presidential poll; 
but is it an automaton that people deliberately choose, to dis- 
pense for them the mysteries of tlie kingdom of God ? When 
they come to the; altar of prayer, l)ur(lened with the labor of 
life; 'when they fly to the tents of faith, seeking refuge from 
over-mastering trouble ; the only soul that can speak effectively 
for them, wisely administering the sacrament of care and sor- 
row, must be one in habitual alliance with the spirit of God, 
and in the daily exercise of that liberty which invites the 
expression of all its convictions. 

Grant that possible abuses are invf)lved in the freedom of 
pulpit utterance; they are also involved in the freedom of 
voting. Shall wo therefore abolish the ballot box ? A free 
o-overument invites the notorious abuse of demagogueism ; but 
it is better to l)ear witli the abuse than exchange it for an 
Austrian police ; for there grows in the land, besides this cum- 
6 



42 THE TvELATIOXS OF SLAVERY TO THE WAR. 

brous weed, a superabounding affluence of social good, that 
no military despotism is allowed to trample out. So, a free 
pulpit may sometimes vex the pews ; but people know that the 
man who stands in it is giving them his honest thought — the 
latest child of his wedded heart and brain ; and that he con- 
fides it their courteous hospitality, for the time being, whether 
they are capable of loving it or not. 

We suppose that no Protestant preacher assumes infallibility, 
or claims to be exempt from practical errors ; but it seems to 
us that the man who makes it the business of his life to study 
the Grospel, and to consider the application of moral principles 
to the affairs of tliis world, ought to be expected to hold clear 
convictions, and to announce them with boldness and energy. 
His very dogmatism may grow out of the fervor of his con- 
victions ; and it would be wiser to trace the processes where 
his reason has traveled, at the lofty behest of the spirit, than 
rashly rebel from a conclusion that he may even defend with 
rhetoric as rough as brickbats. What we want, in the Chris- 
tian churches, is not ductile ecclesiastics, polished up as Sunday 
reflectors of the average decency; but long-armed thinkers, 
who can reach sardonic infidelity asleep in the pew ; and.broad- 
breasted evangelists, who dare fire a celestial volley into a 
wicked caucus or cabinet — not fearing the stain of the powder 
on their raiment, so long as the lead carries terror in the for- 
tress of the devil. We want in the churches, bold men, who 
can face the heat of occasions, and strike when the iron is hot; 
loving men, who regard their congregations too tenderly to 
flatter their pride, or foster their caprices ; faithful men, who 
wed their faculties and their fame to the principles of Chris- 
tianity, and abide whatever fortune these may involve; conse- 
crated men, who — drawing their vitality from the life of God — 
stand on the mountain of faith like cedars, winning vigor from 
the tempest, and everlasting verdure from the sky. 



ADDENDA. 



[From the Nuw York Times of May Kith.] 

The Question of Slavery and the Present Rebellion. 

We have iiisiritcJ, from the bcgiiuung of the wicked and baseless 
rebellion which now agitates the country, that tlie riucstion of Slavery- 
had nothing to do with it, and that the object of this great uprising of 
the 1 )yal people was — not to interfere with Slavery, but to sustain 
the G jvernment and Constitution of the United States. We have 
been confirmed in this position, by everything said or done by the 
Government, in this connection. In his first Proclamation, President 
Lincoln declared that, in the prosecution of the measures for the 
suppression of the rebellion, theic would be no interference with the 
rujhU of ■property. General Butler, at the very outset, returned to 
their masters, fugitive slaves who had tied to him for protection. AVe 
believe the general sentiment of the people commends this position 
of the Government. 

Nevertheless, it cannot be concealed that the progress of events, 
always rapid in revolutions, may compel a change in the policy of 
the Government, as well as in the sentiment of the people, upon this 
subject. The Southern leaders propose to conduct this war with a 
most extraordinary disregard of the laws and usages of civilized 
warfare. They have begun, by authorizing piracy and the wholesalo 
plunder of private property. They set prices upon the heads of loyal 
citizens. It can scarcely be supposed that such barbarous rules as 
these can be put into practical operation, without working a radical 
change in the spirit of the war and the sentiment of the world. 

As Slavery is the most vulnerable point of the South, the time may 
come when the Ciovcrnmcnt will bo compelled, in self-defence, to 
inquire into its relations to that institution, in time of war. And, as 
pertinent to that (luestion, we copy the following remarks on this 
point, made by John Quincy Adams, April U and 15, 1842;— they 
will be read with interest at the prcricnt moment : 



44 THE RELATIONS OK SLAVERY TO THE WAR. 

" I believe that, so long as the Slave Statics are able to eustain their institutions 
>\ithout going abroad, or calling uiion other parts of the Union to aid them, or act 
on the subject, bo long I will consent never to interfere. I have said thin, and I 
repeat it ; but if they come to the Free Slates, and say to them, you must help us to 
keep down our slaves,— yon must aid us in an insurrection and a civil war,— then 1 
Kay that, with that call amies a full and 2>knary j)mver, to this House and to the Senate, 
over the whole subject. It Is a war poiver. 1 say it is a war power ; and, when your 
country is actually in war, whether it be a war of invasion or a war of ins-nrrectkm. 
Congress has power to carry on the war, and 7mist carry it on according to the laws of 
war: and by the laws of war, an invaded country has all its laws and municipal 
inetitutions swept by the board, and martial law takes the place of thorn. 

•' This power in Congress has, perhaps, never been called into exercise under the 
present Constitution of the United States. But when the laws of war are in force, 
what, I ask, is one of these laws ? It is this : that when a country is invaded, and 
two hostile armies are set in martial array, the commanders of both armies have 
)wwer to emancipate all the slaves in the invaded territo,y. Nor is this a mere 
theoretic statement. The history of South Ameri(-a shows that the doctrine has 
been can led into practical execution, within the last thirty years. Slavery was 
abolished in Columbia, first, by the Spanish General Morillo, and, secondly, by the 
American General Bolivar. It was abolished by virtue of a military command 
given at the I'.ead of the army, and its abolition continues to be law to this day. It 
was abolished by the laws of war, and 7iot by municipal enactments ; the power was 
exercised by military commanders, under instructions, of course, from their respec- 
tive Governments. And here I recur again to the example of General Jackson. 
What are you now about in Congress ? You are about passing a grant to refund to 
General Jackson the amount of a certain fine imposed upon him by a Judge, under 
the laws of the State of Louisiana, You are going to refund him th'^ money, with 
interest; and lir's you arc going to do, because the imposition of the fine was 
unjust. Andw^Ly was It unjust? Because General Jackson was acting under the 
laws of war, and because the moment you, place a milUai-y commander in a district 
which is the theatre of war, the laws of war apply to that district. 
»♦*******»•• 
" I might furnish a thousand proofs to show that the pretensions of gentlemen to 
the sanctity of their municipal institutions, under a state of actual invasion and of 
actual war, whether servile, civil or foreign, is wholly unfounded ; and, that tho 
laws of war do, in all such cases, take the precedence. I lay this down as the law 
of nations. I say that military authority takes, for the time, the place of all ninnl- 
cipal institutions, and Slavery among the rest ; and that, under that state of things, 
60 far from its being true that the States where Slavery exists have the exclusive 
mnnagement of the subject, not only the rresldent of the United States, but the Oom- 
maiiMier of the Army, haspawer to prder the universal emancipation of the slaves. I 
have given here, more in detail, a principle which I have asserted on this floor 
before now, and of which 1 have no more doubt, than that you, Sir, occupy that 
chair. I give it in its develojiment, in order that any gentleman, from any part of 
the Union, may, if he thinks proper, deny the truth of the iwsition, and may main- 
tain his denial ; not by indignation, not by passion ;uul fury, but by sound and 
Bober reasoning from the laws of nations and the laws of war. And if my position 
can be answered and refuted, I shall receive the refutation with pleasure ; I shall be 
glad to listen to reason, aside, as I say, from indignation and passion. And if, by 
the force of reasoning, my understanding can be convinced, 1 here pledge myself to 
recant what I have asserted." 
♦ ♦*********♦ 

There is, in this declaration, from one of the ablest publicists this 
country has ever known, matter worthy of profound consideration. 



THE RELATIONS OF SLAVERY TO THE WAR. 4r) 

Its main position is, tliat in war the military law supersedes, and, for 
the moment, annuls the civil law. It is for the Commander at the 
head of the Army, to declare what shall be law in any military dis- 
trict within his control : and the only question he has to ask himself 
is, what will host i)ronK)te the efFicioncy of his military operations. 
The moment a Federal army is marched into any Slave State, the 
general, at the head of it, has power to decree the emancipation of 
every slave. 

This is a prodigious power, — one which, it is to be hoped, our 
armies will not be compelled to exercise. But no man can shut his 
ej'es to the possibilit}', — the probability even, — that this contest will 
be waged, by the rebel forces, in a manner so regardless of all law, 
and all humanity, as to compel a resort to every weapon which tho 
laws of war legitimately place at our command. 

The South has begun, by waging a piratical irm- upon prkmt-e 
property. In this, they take us at prodigious disadvantage. The 
sea is white with the sails of our connnercc, and millions of dollar.s 
may be plundered, and thousands of our lives taken by their priva- 
teers, while they have no commerce exposed to retaliation. They 
have struck a blow at our "peculiar institutions," — at commerce, in 
which millions upon millions of our property are invested. We sug- 
gested, some weeks ago, that the issuing of letters-of-marque would 
be almost certain, sooner or later, to lead to measvrres of retaliation 
upon tlieir peculiar property, — the only property they have which is 
vulnerable to assault. 

At present, public sentiment indorses, fully, the policy pursued by 

General Butler, and set forth in his letter to Governor Andrew. But 

. . . ' 

after the Southern privateers have fairly commenced their murderous 

depredations upon our commerce, it will be impossible to restrain our 

people from wielding every weapon which the laws of war place in 

their hands. 



[From a Report of thn Boston Annivorsarics, pnlilished in tlic New- York Tr'ilrwm 
of June 3cl.] 

The annual meetings, of the American Anti-Slavery Society, were 
postponed by the simultaneous decision of many minds, through a 
wise unwillingness to risk even a ripple against the grand reformatory 
wave which Divine Providence is now so gloriously rolling over the 
nation, in this magnificent war for Freedom and the Constitution. 

But, glad as this people would have been to have heard the splen- 
did orators of Anti-Slavery, whose peerless eloqucnco all admit and 



46 THE RELATIONS OF SLAVERY TO THE WAR. 

admire, there was no need of it this year, as a specialty, when all the 
speakers, at all the meetings, from the Tract Society downward, had 
no other text than the War— Freedon— and Slavery. The tenor of 
ever speech was AVar— the base was Slavery— the deep, sub-base was 
Abolition. 

Dr. Tyng said, before the Boston American Tract Society, that 
slave-holding— that is, holding men and women in bondage— was a 
crime. Hear me, added he, as they were uproarious with applause, 
Slavery ought to be abolished— Slavery can be abolished— Slavery 
shall be abolished— Slavery will be abolished— by this war. If to 
believe that, and to work for it, is Abolitionism, them I'm an Abo- 
litionist. 

Quoting from a South-side clergyman, who argued that Slavery was 
a divine institution— " Yes," said the Doctor, "as hell is a divine 
institution, and destined, I hope, to go to the devil with the close of 
this war." 

Beyond denial, this speech of Dr. Tyng was, as The Traveller has 
intimated, the boldest and most eloquent speech of the kind, ever 
listened to by Boston orthodoxy. Middlemen and ultra conservatists, 
that six months ago would have turned pale and stood aghast at such 
a belching of fanaticism, now bent over and applauded to the echo 
the strongest patriotic and Anti-Slavery blasts of the lion-hearted 
Doctor, who seemed, as the French say, in a state of perfect abandon 
to his theme, and yet of entire control and choice of his language. 
The inspirited afflatus was plainly upon him. The sacred furore was 
clear to be seen. 

Abolitionists, proper, had nothing to do but leave the course clear 
for such a fiery charger, whose neck was clothed with thunders by 
this glorious war for the Union, the Constitution, and Freedom. 
Nevertheless, at the three public meetings of the Church Anti-Slavery 
Society, not a few strong things were said and done, by the Revs. 
Messrs. Webster, Blanchard, Cheever, Davis, Thorne, Fee, Bailey. 
Smith, Lewis Tappan, and others. 

The resolutions adopted were vigorous, and wisely in advance of 
those births of Providence which are rapidly ripening, and which, 
there will not be wanting strength to deliver when their hour has 
come. One of them declares: — 

-That, in our Jud-mcnt, the guidiug Btar, through the war luto which we have 
been forced, is the purpose of God in regard to Slavery, as made kno^^al by llm 
word His Ppirit, and lliB providence ; and if our Government i« stiU dreaming that 
this .trn.'gle can be successful, while the laws of Jehovah are ignored and Ins com- 
mand, • Let tde orrBESSKD oo fkee,' Is disregarded, then there is preparing for u« 
a terrible awakening." 



THE RELATIONS OV SLAVERY TO THE WAR. 47 

Another resolution qnotes at lonpth from the colclirated ppecch of John Quincy 
Adams, in 1S42, and asserts, with confidence, " that, in the order of Divine Provi- 
dence, the time has come for the people and the Government to avail themselves of 
the rights of the war power, as argncd by John Quincy Adams, and to declare an 
act of emanHpation as the only means of averting the horrors of a wide-spread and 
most Woody servile insurrection." 

The Ministry and Churches were recommended to sign and circu- 
late a memorial to the President of the United States, that, as the 
Chief Magistrate of the Nation — " the minister of God for good, not 
bearing the sword in vain," — and having the undoubted Constitutional 
right, b}^ the war power, with which he is intrusted, to "proclaim 
Liberty throughout all the land, unto all the inhabitants thereof,"— 
that he call, by proclamation, upon all the inhabitants of the United 
States of all conditions, bond and free, to aid in supporting the Gov- 
ernment, — assuring them all of its impartial protection under the 
common flag of our National Union and Freedom, 

A petition was forthwith drawn up, and signed by upward of 
twenty-five representative clergymen of different denominations, from 
all parts of the country, and forwarded to Washington. 



[From a Washington letter in the New-York Times of May 31st. J 

Probable Effect of the War upon Slavery. 

The impression gains ground that there can be no end to the present 
war, no compromise, no peace, which leaves the cause of it in exist- 
ence. The irrepressible conflict having taken this sanguinary char- 
acter, can no more be staid while >Slavery exists. It has been 
resolved, by the whole people of the North, that the Union must be 
preserved. The Government responds to this popular outburst of 
patriotism, and re-echoes it in official instructions to our Foreign Min- 
isters. This is the one great point determined, and it is now becom- 
ing evident that it cannot be made final and sure without a complete 
overthrow of the institution of Slavery. 

How, then, shall this great revolution in Southern society be 
effected ? It can be accomplished by making war upon it, and noth- 
ing seems to be more proba})le than that abolition will be a necessary 
result of war. The war will cost hundreds of millions, directly and 
indirectly, to the Government, hundreds of millions to the rebels, and 
the event will leave the weaker party in a condition little short of 
ruin. 

Is it not better to look these facts in the face, in the beginning of 
tlie contest, and make an effort at compromise, on the broad and per- 



48 THE RELATIONS OF SLAVERY TO THE WAR. 

manent basis of peaceful and gradual emancipation, with compensa- 
tion ? It may be necessary that the South shall receive one or two 
overwhelming defeats in the battle field, before its people will consent 
to so radical a measure ; but, in the meantime, it will be well for the 
people of the North to have it under consideration. If Congress 
should adopt a resolution in favor of calling a General Convention of 
the States, looking to the adoption of such a compromise, it could 
not fail at once to arrest the attention of thousands of Southern men, 
who would prefer such a settlement to a continuance of destructive 
war. 

If, for instance, it were agreed that Slavery shoul<l be abolished at 
the end of ten years, and, in the meantime, to be greatly modified 
and improved in its grosser features, on condition that the owners 
should receive, in United States' Stocks, an average of one hundred 
dollars per head for their slaves, the alternative would be seized with 
joy, by a large portion of the Southern people. The cost of this 
arrangement, to the Government, would be about four hundred mil- 
lions of dollars, which is less than a war of four years would cost to 
either party. 

Provision for the abolition of Slavery at the end of ten years, would 
give no shock, immediate or remote, to the frame-work of society, 
even in a time of profound peace and prosperity ; and in the actual 
circumstances of the case with a destructive war raging, which abo- 
lition would put an end to, it would be the very best thing the South 
could do, even without compensation. The sum, proposed to be paid 
to the slave-holders, is probably not more than one-fourtli of the cash 
value of the slaves before the rebellion commenced ; but it is fidly 
half their value at the present moment, and is more than they would 
fetch a year hence, if the war continues. It is also to be an advance 
payment, for the liberation of the slaves at the end of ten years. 
With that ready capital, the South would at once enter ui)on a career 
of prosperity and progress unparalleled in its previous liistory, and 
the North would be more than compensated for its share in the 
burden, by the revival of business. 



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